Re: The radar missed the <chunk of> and it holed my mining ship!


"Ben Crowell" <crowell08@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:48307602$0$4063$4c368faf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

You can't get specular reflection unless the wavelength is small
compared to the size of the object. I think that means that you
can't work by analogy with the Stealth.

Ok

I don't think materials have as much "individuality" as you're thinking
in their interactions with radio waves. In IR, visible, and UV, you're
in an energy regime where there's lots of band structure and stuff.
At radio wavelengths, I think it's mainly just a question of the
substance's permeability, permittivity, and conductivity. Diamond
has exceptional properties in the visible light range, but in radio
I'd think it would be pretty similar to any other insulator.

My thinking was that if the diamond chunk was mostly flat planes, it would
reflect radar all right, but the beams just wouldn't hit the antenna on the
ship. So it would in effect disappear.

The idea of the radar is that most chunks being in orbit you'd just pilot
around; the odd sized chunk moving faster you'd eitehr maneuver around or
.... in the case of something that suddenly came in rage and was moving too
fast to avoid, you would at least close the interior air doors. You
wouldn't keep these dogged down all the time as piping and other things have
to go through such areas. If you knew you were going to be hit, just like
on a Navy ship, you shut everything down. BAM. Then you assess damage and
figure out which pipes are safe to open.

Navy ships, when at full 'lock down' can only stay that way for a few hours.
After a while, crewman have to use the facilities!

In this case, I need the guy to be so totally surprised he doesn't have a
chance to close or dog down anything. The doors close automatically, of
course, but something has them jammed ... Doh!

== John ==


.

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